Friday, November 30, 2012 Christian Geek Central!

I wanted to let you all in on something that's been bubbling and brewing for a few months now that I'm very excited about and hope you will be, too!

As I mentioned last month, in early 2013 I plan to launch a new website called "Christian Geek Central". I've already secured the domain name but I've been keeping the details under the radar until now.

Christian Geek Central will not be replacing Spirit Blade Productions but will rather be a product of Spirit Blade Productions. One YOU are invited to help me develop!

My goal for Christian Geek Central (or as I've already started calling it, "CGC") is that it will serve as the central hub and gateway for the best "Christian Geek" content that can be found on the web. It will aim to be both a portal to other sites and a producer of content and community that will interest Christian geeks of all kinds.

The idea for Christian Geek Central came out of brainstorming and discussions with my web designer about the new Spirit Blade Productions website (which is still in development with the aim of launching in the first half of 2013). Some great ideas came out of those conversations, but we soon realized we were talking about a new website that would be distinct from the Spirit Blade Productions website. And since the initial content for Christian Geek Central will determine some choices we make for the redesign of the Spirit Blade Productions site, it makes sense to get Christian Geek Central going first.

Christian Geek Central will first launch "unofficially" in early 2013 (I'm anticipating January or February), at which time I will only be telling the existing Spirit Blade Underground community (that's you!) about it. At first, it will be a very simple site, possibly based on the blogger platform, or something similar that will be easy-peasy for me to manipulate. (I'm open to suggestions!) From there, work will continue on the Spirit Blade Productions website as we build content and community for Christian Geek Central. (Speaking of which, if you'd like to recommend a site for inclusion, send me an e-mail with the URL!)

Once CGC has a good amount of content and the kind of community activity supporting it that I'd like to have in place, we'll probably do a complete site redesign for Christian Geek Central and officially launch CGC to the rest of the world!

For those wondering how CGC will impact the production schedule of Spirit Blade 3, have no fear. December is a very busy month, during which it's almost impossible to schedule actors to audition or record. So with the exception of some initial development on the songs for SB3, December was going to be a low productivity month for SB3 anyway. So instead I'll be giving most of my available time in December to exploring the web and collecting potential content links for CGC, including websites, blogs, podcasts and communities.

Speaking of which, community is something that I want to make a big part of Christian Geek Central. I'm currently brainstorming ways to help that happen, so I'm open to ideas and suggestions. I'd love to somehow take the wonderful community we've developed on the Spirit Blade Underground forums and share that experience with those Christian geeks who may have not discovered the SBU yet because of its strong ties to Spirit Blade Productions. (Not everyone is cool enough to be interested in audio drama and podcasts.)

I'm hoping to connect with a few other people to gain some counsel on the subject. In the meantime, I'd value a slice of your prayer time as I work to discern what God may want to do with this idea and how he would want me to do it.

I'll be sure to give you more details as they come. If you have any questions, ask away! I'd love to hear what you're thinking or wondering!